One Person Dead and Three Injured in Dust Explosion at Woodworking Plant

Date:  January 24, 2019
Location:  Anzegem, West Flanders (Belgium)
Address:  Nijverheidslaan 9, 8570

Type:  Dust Explosion

Fuel:  Wood Dust
Industry:  Door and Window Manifacturing (Wood Products)
Equipment:  Silo

Company:  Groep Pouleyn
Database Incidents:  None Recorded

Loss:  One Dead, Three Injured
Capital Cost:  Unknown

Status: Open  
Confirmation:  Unconfirmed

Company Description:
According to the company website, Groep Pouleyn is located in Anzegem, Belgium and manufactures doors and windows for upscale residences and buildings. The facility is ​​20,000m² and employs 90 people.

Incident Description:
On January 25, 2019, NWS reported a dust explosion at a door and window company in Anzegem, Belgium.

A company that arrived the next day to clean out the silo reported that the wood shavings were still warm. When a hatch was opened around four meters off the ground, oxygen came into contact with the still warm wood shavings, which caused an explosion and meter-high flash flame to be created.

According to Nieuwsblad, four cleaning company employees were seriously injured. One of them, a 24-year-old man, later died. The other three had severe burns.

After the injured employees were sent to the hospital, the fire department made a hole in the silo to enable additional extinguishing. They said that the smoke would not be harmful to local residents.

The Ghent labor auditorium has started a preliminary investigation.

Sources:
NWS
Nieuwsblad